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  The Value of a Sanctuary   

-- By Paul Beasley --  

Is it luck or do sanctuary's really pay off? This buck was harvested right on the doorstep of one of our sanctuaries; the same one that Keith took his monster in the year before. Two years, two bucks, same sanctuary. 		 
      If you read our hunts from last year, you may recall Keith's story where he told of a special little 15 acre chunk of bush that we turned into a sanctuary. It's the kind of piece that we no longer step foot into and especially never hunt in. Last year, this sanctuary provided Keith with an incredible buck and a great memory too. This year, well.let's just say it came through for us again.
    Early in the year, we found out the farmer was planting beans on the neighbouring fields. Knowing the summer and early fall attraction that beans provide, we used our trail cameras set up over these bean fields to get an idea of what bucks were using it.
    We caught quite a few young bucks and lots of does and fawns but the big buck sightings were low in number. By mid-September, we had one really good buck on camera and a couple decent ones that didn't appear to be very old. The best racked one was a great looking buck that had damaged his left antler in the early stages of growth and caused his rack to grow very unusual. He still had a fairly typical 4 point side on the right and we are very confident that he is the same 8 point I had passed up last year in early October in the same area. 		 
  This nontypical called our sanctuary home and we had multiple pictures of him but larger bucks in the area must have sent him looking for his own territory because he was shot on opening morning of the gun hunt about 2kms away. Paul passed on this buck last year as a clean 115-120 inch 8 point. Goes to show you what a year can do for a buck.  
 
    Once October rolled around, we caught two more good mature bucks on camera that we hadn't seen through the summer. One of them seemed to only come through in the middle of the night so were weren't too optimistic about harvesting him unless the rut brought him out in daylight. The other buck though, walked out under one of our stands just before last light and we caught three pictures of him. He had a tall rack with a great frame but his right side didn't seem to finish off properly causing his G3 and main beam to be shortened and form a crab-claw. Nevertheless, he was a good mature buck.
    The early bow season came and went with no good chances or even really good sightings of a mature buck though we were still catching them on camera. The wind was really bad for many of our good spots throughout October so we weren't able to get in tight on these bucks.
 
  Appropriately nicknamed the Crab-Claw Buck because of his left beam, this buck was caught on camera on multiple occasions and Keith even had him at 50 yards during bow season.

  
 
    On the Saturday evening before the shotgun hunt opened, Keith had the crab-claw buck at 50 yards but couldn't get him to come any closer for a shot. This happened really early in the afternoon which was a promising sign that daylight activity was increasing. The shotgun hunt opened and our first few days were pretty uneventful. We were seeing deer but any bucks we saw were young and not showing any interest in the does. I photographed a nice 8 point with almost no brow tines for about 30 minutes on the Tuesday evening. He was a good looking buck but just not quite what I was looking for. Given the short brow tines, we called him Stumpy. 		 
  This buck appeared on the edge of the sanctuary about 30 minutes before dark with nothing on his mind but the alfalfa at his feet. He fed about 80 yards away for about 15 minutes but just wasn't what Paul was looking for so he let him walk, but not before taking about 50 pictures of him.

  
 
    On November 8th, I went and checked one of the cameras and was surprised to find a nice tall-tined 8 pointer coming out of our sanctuary and walking by the camera at 4:30pm. Our past experiences have shown that when we see a buck this time of year, we usually have a couple days to kill him before he moves on. So, that evening, Dad, Kevin and I went out hoping to catch a glimpse of him.
    We were all spread out pretty far apart in such a way that we typically wouldn't be seeing the same animals; however, tonight we all saw the same buck. He came out by Dad first. Dad saw him about 150-160 yards away skirting the edge of this sanctuary. He didn't break cover for too long before disappearing back into the timber. Dad knew he was heading in my general direction so he didn't rush a shot but just sat back and hoped for the best.
    About 10-15 minutes after Dad lost sight of him, he appeared in front of me on the same trail that a doe and fawn had walked about 20 minutes before. Having just seen Stumpy in this area two days before, I was unsure if the deer I was seeing was him or not. I couldn't tell the difference with my bare eyes but my Zeiss Optics made it crystal clear. This was not Stumpy and was in fact the 8 point from the trail cam the day before.
    He was about 80 yards away from me but his path led him through a tall patch of golden rods that covered his vitals. It wasn't until he was standing about 150 yards away, on a really sharp quartering away that I had my first shot opportunity. I had to move myself down into the golden rod patch to get a shot and when I got down there, I wasn't comfortable with all the weeds in the way so I decided to try and bring him closer. I gave a few grunts and sure enough, he turned to look for a brief second before beginning his approach to my location. My heart started beating faster as he made his approach but again, the golden rods kept swallowing him up and at one point, I completely lost sight of him. Little did I know, the golden rods provided him a completely concealed path right out into the field beside me and he was able to walk right into 20 yards without offering me a clear shot. He finally got down wind and busted out of there. Right after he left me, he ran through the far end of the field Kevin was watching and stopped long enough for Kevin to get the scope up on him but it was getting to dark and he didn't risk a shot. 		 
  This is the tall-tined 8 pointer that Keith harvested a couple days later. Having just seen Stumpy the day before, Paul first thought this may have been him and in the time it took Paul to confirm it wasn't, the buck had already passed his best holes and he had no good chance for a shot.

  
 
    Sunday morning, we weren't hunting but Kevin drove by our sanctuary and saw a huge 8 point chasing a doe all over the area. He watched them for quite some time. This was really exciting and was exactly what we were waiting for.
    Monday morning, Keith shot that 8 pointer a mere couple hundred yards from where we'd caught him on camera and where I had the run-in with him a few days before on his way into our sanctuary. That same morning, I was glassing the field from my car with my Zeiss binoculars trying to ensure there was nothing in the field before I proceeded in and sure enough, I started to make out bodies in the center of the field. As light slowly started to arrive, I could make out about 5 or 6 does and fawns and before long, the big 8 pointer came charging out of the bush and scattered the does and fawns like a pointer busting a covey of Quail. He stayed right with one doe, chasing her all over the field and back again. I was helplessly watching from my car as I dared not move in and risk spooking them. I was praying that they'd move back into the bedding area but instead, he ran her off the property. I waited for the remaining does and fawns to head into the trees and finally made a stealthy stalk into the area I last saw them. I waited and waited all morning but never caught sight of them again.
    The next morning, I was watching a main travel route heading back into the sanctuary and this time, I didn't see a single deer.that is until 8:35am when I watched the Crab-Claw buck heading into the sanctuary from a neighboring property. He was all alone and heading in my general direction though I knew his route would take him through the center of the sanctuary. Not willing to break our rule of entering the area, I stayed put and tried rattling and calling. Nothing worked and I sat until 10:30am when I finally had to leave and go work for a couple hours. There's nothing worse than having to work when you know the rut's on and there's big bucks in the area.
    Finally, at 1pm I broke free and we all headed out to our spots for the evening hunt. I was watching a small little corner of the sanctuary where the thick cedars butt up against a small cattail patch. The patch is a little wet but has a lot of high ground that they'll often bed in. I was settled in nice and early and at 2:30pm, a doe busted out of the cedars and stopped about 3 yards into the tall cattails. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going to happen next. As I readied my muzzleloader, out stepped the Crab-Claw buck several yards away from the doe. He looked so majestic with the early afternoon sun beating down on his white rack and holding his head high to see over the cattails. He knew the doe had entered this patch but because of the high cattails he couldn't see her. He stood still for several minutes and the entire time I had my crosshairs on him but there was a small little sapling that covered all of his vitals. He finally had enough of the situation and turned to head back into the cedars but in doing so, stepped just enough forward to expose his vitals and my 200 grain Shockwave hit the mark. He made two bounds into the cedars and with my binoculars, I was able to watch his antlers as he stopped and swayed side to side before falling to the ground. I lost sight of him once he fell so I reloaded and waited several minutes before walking in on him. Sure enough, he had expired and that's when the celebration began. Kevin ended his hunt early and met up with me and together we relished in the moment. 		 
      It had been a tough hunt up to that point with several sightings but no really good chances and once again, for the second year in a row, we killed a mature whitetail buck on the fringe of our coveted little sanctuary. Interestingly enough, the same two does were once again using the sanctuary and I killed my buck one year later (to the week) of Keith harvesting his buck from the same spot. I don't know if you can say this is always true, but these does didn't seem to draw the attention of mature bucks until the second week of November two years in a row.